A Heart Afire – notes on the book by Shachter-Shalomi & Miles-Yepez

These are my own gleanings from a profound book (both spiritually and practically) by Zalman Shachter-Shalomi & Netanel Miles-Yepez, A Heart Afire: stories and teachings of the early Hasidic masters (2009, JPS). I hope they encourage you to buy the book. I have paraphrased in order to clarify my own understanding, but there are also direct quotations from the book. The notes in square brackets are my own thoughts and responses, rather than ideas gleaned from the book itself.

Introduction

Xvii – self-appointed gatekeepers of tradition and teachings can block the flow to new recipients
Xvii – Z. searching for “direct guidance and examples of holiness”

Neo-Hasidism: the fourth turning

Xvii – Hasidism can be liberal
Xix – Hasidism has renewed 4 times over almost 1500 years
Xix – using 3^rd Turning stories to propel 4^th Turning

Getting to know a rebbe

Xxi – watch and learn how the rebbe ties his shoelaces [and emulate this in own life]
Xxi – Learn about who a rebbe was through his writings and teachings
Xxi – Greasing a cart’s wheel while wearing a tallit – rather than seeing it as debasing the tallit, think of it as elevating the act of greasing the wheel
Xxiii – “Objective Hasid is not a Hasid.” Mustn’t dodge feeling.
Xxiii – ok to retell a story from your own perspective
Xxiii – “hyphenated reality” biography + hagiography; objectivity + subjectivity; history / psychology + myth / tradition
Xxiii – highest value placed on what is transformative, whether it is a story or a teaching
Xxiv – “one who is only subjective is not responsible, and one who is only objective is not human”
Xxiv Characters, while archetypes, must be accessible enough that we can emulate them

The farbrengen book

Xxv – Allow time for the telling of a story to take effect.
Xxv – This is a farbrengen book, i.e. in the spirit of sharing, immersion, stories
Xxvi – This book contains biographies, and an intellectual, contemplative, sophisticated introduction to Hasidism
Book recommendations:
- Green & Holtz ‘Your Word Is Fire: The Hasidic masters of contemplative prayer’
- Rose & Leader ‘God in All Moments: mystical and practical wisdom from Hasidic masters’
- David Cooper ‘God is a verb: kabbalah and the practice of mystical Judaism’
- Green ‘Ehyeh: a kabbalah for tomorrow’
- Kaplan ‘Innerspace: introduction to kabbalah, meditation and prophecy’

1. A Hidden Light: the ba’alei shem and the hidden tzadikim

Eliyahu, the ba’al shem of Worms

4 nigleh-revealed, nistar-inner/hidden

Yoel, the ba’al shem of Zamoshtch

6 [Wild folktale of fantastical creature attacking infant before brit tells deep human truth that a) we must go to extremes to protect infant, b) it is a sacred task, c) threat can come from most unlikely place, d) drama of tale reflects intense importance of the issue.]

Adam, the ba’al shem of Rophshitz and the tzaddikim nistarim

7 Old belief that penitent lifestyle could atone for wrongs before arriving in ‘world to come’
8 Teachers of deep ideas reveal the ideas, and themselves, slowly (e.g. story of mysterious visiting knife mender)

Eliezer, the father of the Ba’al Shem Tov

10 [Serve to the best of your ability – keep your word.]
12 [Hospitality, generosity, graciousness & open-mindedness, regardless of a person’s conduct.]
12 [Parents are hosts to their child.]
12 Besht’s father: “Don’t fear anything in the world except God.”
[Offer every bit of love you have to those who need it.]

The hidden history of the Ba’al Shem Tov

13 Olam ha-mashal world of the imagination
13 “historical authenticity is hardly relevant to the Hasid whose soul has been enriched by its truth”
14 NB Rebbes have a formative experiences learning how to live before they become tzaddkikim
15 Enlightenment is a long process, not an event; and even events must go through a process of enlightenment
16 Be sceptical of ‘visions’ – the work is on physical plane as well
17 [You may be ‘called’ or ‘blessed’, but you must keep doing the ‘work’.]
19 “Whether this was a shamanic or imaginal journey or trip into the natural landscape where the veil between worlds is almost transparent, the Ba’al Shem Tov’s experience remains the same, the transformative effect on his consciousness remains the same. We need only know that something happened to him.”
20 Forget label of a subject or teacher; focus on the nuance of what is there to be learned. Pre-labelling can close the mind.
20 Teacher’s reluctance to admit to special experiences and abilities
20 beware the lures of the ego within
21 Precious time in private study & prayer, no communal demands

A letter from Adam Ba’al Shem

22 “whatever [good] a Jew does should be hidden from others, so that it may be for the sake of the blessed name alone.” [Hiding a good action from others, and doing it only for the sake of God ensures purity of motive. We could treat all acts like this, even those in full view of others.]
23 “What is it that I have done for God alone – that no one else knows – that is simply my own special love gift to God?”
24 If what I have to offer is for the few, then give me people who can [receive and] support this.
24 Spiritual leadership must be done with the support and challenge of like-minded people.

2. A heart afire: the revelation of the Ba’al Shem Tov

26 Start with those most likely to listen, and who could help make the teachings accessible

Divine providence

27 Remove ego and stakes – argue for the sake of heaven
27 Winning argument doesn’t matter compared to God
28 [Besht showing that Gershon has formed opinions based on hearsay.]
29 Know that God is with you [Don’t ‘display’ this.]
30 See, hear, sense God, meaning and purpose in everything – this is investment. Imbue everything with God, meaning and sacredness. We can attune our attitude to healing, clarity, love, holiness.
31 Saying the world ‘is perfect’ is intentional language, seeing what good there is, and could be, with our intervention
31 Look with sacred eyes
31 Besht explains that nothing is added [or distorted]. Simply helping reconnection to faith [and esoteric lineage]
32 Primary to believe in God. Belief in God à belief in God’s providence.
[In any encounter, I and the other person are part of each other’s path to God.]
32 God provides many ways to access Him [If I don’t see that, that’s my myopia.]
32 Continually calling-into-being [and I must also constantly call God into being]
32 God has not left Creation, having launched it initially – Creation is continuous and purposeful
33 ‘Divine clockmaker’ implies atheism.
33 “… if God is not also radically and palpably present, theological speculations are like coordinates on a fictional map to nowhere. God is truly a verb, continually creating and communicating with us – indeed, keeping us in existence every moment!”
33 “It is not that I believe in God, but that God believes me into existence, creating a space in which I can become conscious of my own self and can ultimately discover the divine source of that self.”
34 All is divinity; all human acts are divine in origin. Therefore God is both hidden and manifest in everything.
34 “No existence has existence other than the self-existence of God. Hence even that which at first glance seems as separated and sundered from divinity is itself absolute divinity. Likewise, all that is brought into the existence and renewal of the active world, even though their manifest causes are results of natural accidents and a person’s choice or intervention, nevertheless, the inner cause is root in hashgachah pratit, the particular providence and wisdom of God …”
35 “… there is nothing that is not divine, that is not a manifestation of divinity. Thus every encounter becomes a divine opportunity to be taken hold of, like a golden chain of consciousness leading one back to the source. Divinity itself is the secret meaning, the holy significance buried in every thing, every breath, and every thought.”
36 [if Akiva saw God face to face in each event, perhaps Zalman is secretly teaching that is how Moses spoke with God face to face (Ex 33:11). Moses recognised God’s p’nei/face in everything, as each moment being what it was: eheyeh asher eheyeh.]
36 Sensory information is equal to, not higher than, other perceptions.
36 Consult all four worlds, without prioritising any one of them. [Think of them as an advisory committee, or mastermind team.]
37 Deut. 4:39 ein od ‘there is nothing else’
37 Each thought of each person originates in God
38 Practice meditation to learn discernment between intuition (spiritual insight) from a thought (intellectual construct)
38 God is in every act and word, even if the actor/speaker is not aware of this [there is sacred treasure everywhere]
39 [We may speak a truth that fits someone’s need and circumstances, without knowing it. This can be heard by the listener listening for divine insight. Equally, it can be spoken because the speaker devoutly intends to serve God in speech, without knowing the facts of the situation. Even then, the listener might not be ready to hear.]
40 Dark thoughts, especially repetitive ones, mean that a divine spark at the root of a soul is waiting to be developed [fanned into flame]
40 “If one seduces a virgin …” becomes an elaborate metaphor about following a thought impulse to its origin in Godf [!]
40 “Shamanism is always threatening chaos and the priesthood is always falling into irrelevance.”
41 Distort a verse if it leads to a true heart-insight.
41 “Words that come from the heart enter the heart.”
42 “Step out of the congregation” à have the courage of your convictions
Isaiah 6:3 “The world is full of God’s glory.” Ps. 16:8 “Hold God always before me.”
43 [In questions of belief] ‘won’t’ is more accurate than ‘can’t’.
44 “The truth is, words are not enough; the testimony of personal experience must enter into relationship with the words before an honest turning is possible.” – so that we consciously choose.

The Heart Afire

46 Moses began with Egyptian gods and cosmology, and a shamanic father-in-law (Jethro).
47 learn to keep making transitions into spiritual spaces, and the next one
47 Remove the na’al-shoe from your regel-foot à remove the ‘lock’ from your ‘habit’
48 Onkelos substitutes for any anthropomorphisms of God [leading to interesting deeper meanings]
48 YHVH revealed itself in the bush [ie God showed that God was even in a bush]
48 Revelation is for everyone at the level they can manage
48 Different commentaries open up each other
49 revelation comes in levels
49 revelation is not complete until everyone gets it [so help others get it if you’ve got it]
49 Rashi: in the ‘heart afire’ – the inspired heart is where God speaks [ie democratic accessibility of God]
49 All receive revelation at own level. There’s no hierarchy. Heart afire is the key.
49 God condenses and reveals Self in narrowest places in the world (even a bush)
50 The ‘narrow’ place (tzarah) of the thorn bush becomes a window (tzohar) to Divinity. [We don’t have to leave ordinary reality to experience God. We can penetrate its layers and discover God in the ordinary.]
50 God accepts and inhabits the narrow, so we should too – and through that we can glimpse the Expanse
51 Scholars can become blocked & satisfied by knowledge [know-it-all]. Unleanred hearst always alive with yearning.
51 For religion to be useful, it must have consensus reality. But, this must not be imposed by any group e.g. a learnéd elite [or a happy-clappy unlearned]
51 The learnéd are the ignorant if they lose touch with heart
52 the one who thinks he knows neds his ignorance to be revealed
52 Moses was the most humble person (Num.12:3) but even Moses ‘turned’ (did t’shuvah) so there is always room for us to do more repentance. Besht connects humility, not knowing, and repentance.
[Attributing static identity to self or others short-sightedly condemns a person to no potential for spiritual growth, whatever their starting point.]
54 “There is enlighten-ing, but no enlighten-ment.”

The Word Ark

55 Words of prayer must ‘shine’
55 Three decks of the ark-‘word’ = spoken, felt and known word; & Shekhinah enters through the skylight.
[Emunah = personal dedication to God through intentional acts, orientation and practice; it involves harnessing my will in the service of God. Bitachon is surrendering to the flow of God present in everything, trusting beyond cognitive understanding, that I, along with everything else, am part of that flow (or that everything, including myself, is part). Emunah and bitachon are two sides of the same coin, two types of transparency to God.]
56 When depressed, believe in the significance of your soul and your acts, believe in your spirituality and prayer [your temporary mitzvah is to represent that place for and to God] “When you are depressed, you say, ‘So what? What does it matter? What can I do?’. It is then that you need to have faith, saying, “… The world depends on your actions! For you the world was created! God is waiting for you to say, Baruch Atah (bless are You) … because this will bring healing into the world!”
56 God to Noah: ‘enter the ark with your family’ = enter the ‘words’ of prayer with everything personal, all that preoccupies you

A journey of heavenly ascent

[Words can convey multiple layers and dimensions in one statement.]
57 We’re constantly ‘receiving’ at many levels [like a radio receiver – is we ‘tune in’, we can discern what is being sent and received.]
58 Our soul is constantly in contact with other worlds.
[We’re sending signals along the soul super-highway. Remember ‘you are vibration’.]
60 Prayer can help departed souls make t’shuvah
60 Even the most accomplished must accept a master
[Pirkei Avot 4:1 “Who is wise? One who learns from everyone.”]
61 Calm yourself when in out-of-body meditation: ‘This is a good way to transition, but this is not my time.’
62 Unification comes from sitting in the tension of opposites. Stay with the difficult tension of both – and that produces unification breakthrough eventually and toughens us for the work.
63 Aim for God-connection first. Torah learning and observance can be added as and when. “Often in Judaism there is so much emphasis on observance that the joy of relating to God gets lost. Many teachers want to get a lot of observance mileage out of people before they will even give them a crumb of God-experience. But my sense is that we need to give people a taste of that experience, and experience of that light, and let God lead them further in the direction of observance and to the particular level of observance that God wants from them. … Observance of the mitzvot must first come according to your capacity, and the more you get involved in it, the deeper the observance grows in you. But if you demand that the checklist of observance be completed before you get a taste of the divine honey, the likelihood is that people are going to invest so heavily in the surface of the tradition that they will become hollow on the inside, sending a lot of energy into shadow. Or they are simply going to shop for spirit elsewhere.”
64 You can’t burst people open – all must happen at the right speed
65 [Make every word in davenen count, and pay attention to what you say and how you say it.]
[Even the greatest wisdom isn’t the end of wisdom. All wisdom can be surpassed. So don’t become complacent about your own wisdom; learn from the wisdom of others, and don’t be intimidated or inhibited by it.]
66 Spiritual teachers must learn not to give it all away to students. Students must be helped to grow by not being handed everything.

3. The wheel of fate and fortune: whispers of the Ba’al Shem Tov

76 Shabbat sacrifice is achieved through loving
[Kadosh x3: Do you see God’s glory in the world? How will you make sure you do?]
[Adon Olam & Ein Keiloheinu are summaries of the central issue: Make God One (thing) in your life. There is, and should be, and can be, no other.]
77 Isaac shows huge g’vurah to be prared for meisrat nefesh, giving up his soul
[Don’t be fooled: Shabbat & week are One, simply different appearances of the One Divine Reality. Havdalah paradox: We acknowledge difference between Shabbat and the wrrk, knowing this is an illusion. Put drops of blessed wine on eyelids, so we can see through the veil of difference in the week, and discern holiness in every moment, turning everymomtn that seems other than holy … into holiness.]
78 It’s easy to discern sacred/profane and other divisions on Shabbat; at Havdalah, putting wine on our eyelids helps us to do this during the week as well
[Allow for continually fresh revelations from the same verses.]
81 the soul can learn from the body; we can learn wisdom, humility, compassion from the Earth
81 The Earth is crying out for our help.
82 To care for people and planet is a greater mitzvah than caring for one’s own soul’s happiness [so it is a misguided modern idea to give primacy to one’s own self-actualisation, happiness, or satisfaction of one’s own needs]
[When we choose the highest path, may God choose the same for us.]
83 The kefitzat ha-derech (shortening of the way) is like in Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’, connecting awareness of past and future.
85 Honour those who maintain the fixed ways of the past – we can visit and learn something
86 Be rooted in tradition and adapted to new situation and demands

A compassionate judgement

101 Ps 51:19 God doesn’t hate a broken and contrite heart
102 “Now, the nigun is a melody for tuning the soul, for creating a unique atmosphere, and for keeping it primed. … There is a certain kavanah, a certain intentionality that goes into the composition of nigun, and that quality can be invoked under the right circumstances.”
103 “… [a nigun] doesn’t sing itself. It isn’t living until it is sung. It isn’t transformative until it is heard by an open and engaged heart. That is to say that the nigun is an interactive tuning instrument. Through it, the soul is tuned and transformed. But to effect this change or exchange, the singer must first be mindful and listen to what the nigun is trying to communicate, even as he or she is singing it.”

**Part II: The Circle of the Ba’al Shem and the Maggid of Mezritch**

4. A Knowledge of Fire: Adel Ashkenazi, the daughter of the Ba’al Shem Tov

Bringing him down to earth

[To balance d’veikut practices, find ways to ground yourself.]

The sleeping child

[For others, reframe a lapse or flaw or as a virtue.]

The gates of divine help

110 “without God’s help, it is impossible to accomplish anything, even the smallest movement” [That includes evil.]

A worthy companion

[Pray for a decree to be annulled: it may lead at least to softening the decree.]
[Or pray for a softening, accepting that annulment is not warranted.]

A shoe for a shidduch

[Adel stories show a tzaddik still needed corrections, advocacy with God, reminders of women’s wisdom & partnership in the work.]

A shoe for a child

115 Is the blessing to remove the obstacle, or create something new?
115 At the birth of a baby, is this an old soul with merit reincarnating, or a new soul?
[Heaven’s decrees and destiny can be overturned, if the balanced is restored somewhere else.]
116 Serve God purely, without expectation of reward.
116 Anyone can give a blessing. [Encourage and teach people how to do this.]

A kvittel and two letters

[Use blessing opportunity to ask blessing for someone who normally gives blessings.]

Adel and the Book of Remedies

119 Herbal healing
119 segullot (charms) were inscribed [do these have the effect of reframing how a patient imagines the ending of their own story, as in Native American healing stories?]

Good timing

120 Food must be prepared with the right kavanah
120 An apparent setback is simply a tool of divine providence – hashgachah hapratit
120 Reb Z.: the Messiah is waiting until we create a fairer world.
[Note how Reb Z. adjusts a traditional, even factual, story to make a new point.]

The Will

Matchmaking between worlds

122 Mutual forgiveness in extended family before wedding; and audit your emotional legacy from ancestors’ marriage and rest before your own. “In a Jewish wedding, before the bride proceeds to the wedding canopy, she is first veiled. It is at this point that I usually gather all the blood relatives together in one room and ask them each to forgive one another, because it is impossible to grow up in a family—with siblings, cousins, parents, aunts, and uncles—without having some secret anger. It is very important to relieve the bride and groom of this private burden before they enter their next phase of life together. When the forgiveness work is done, then everyone is truly in a position to be able to bless the couple in a powerful way. I also use this story when I counsel people who are thinking about getting married. I say to them, “Think of the impressions the marriages you have known have left upon you … your parents’ marriage, your grandparents’ marriage … what is there in the family DNA that you are bringing into your own marriage? I am sure you will find both positive and negative things, and now is the time to clean them up inside of yourself, to figure out what you want to reproduce, what you want to discard, and what you would like to create anew. It is important to do this before the wedding.”
[Perhaps, a celebrant could suggest that family members pray for finding peace in themselves in relation to others in the family with whom they don’t have peace.]

Adel and Feiga and the light of the Ba’al Shem Tov

124 Perhaps a child’s shortened life provides completion of a soul’s journey from a previous life.
[Nachman is still a rebbe for people now. I learn from this that Reb Z. can continue to be my rebbe.]

5. Awake in the dark night: Pinchas of Koretz, the Silent Sage

Doubts about the faith

[Note Reb Z says the teacher was important ‘at that time’, which leads me to think he might have later outgrown that teacher.]
[Yearning to have greater faith or any faith at all, is a form of faith, because the soul is clearly active.]
130 If you study frequently, your mind will continue to operate similarly outside study time.
130 Some argue that ‘study’ keeps us in ‘reasoning’ mode and away from other dimensions. [But reason can be a path for other dimensions to reach through to us.]
131 If you pray, and God helps, that can help push back doubts about faith. [That’s an emotional, not a logical, answer.]
132 “philosophy is still a concept system that cannot (for all of its brilliance) contain the complexities of our basic life system: that is to say, in the moment of quiet contemplation, philosophy will not substitute for an experience of depth and knowing—not for a human being. We crave the bedrock testimony of experience.” [A J Heschel wrote that philosophy of religion was not about reasoning or proving whether or not God existed, but doing philosophy with the foundational premise that God exists.]

The silent youth

133 “If there is a true vocation, one cannot avoid it.” [So we don’t need to advertise or push so hard?]

A blessing no one else would give, Pt 1

Etrogim for the heirs of the Ba’al Shem Tov

Popularity and responsibility

136 We must stand with as well as for people.
136 You might have less time for contemplation, but your active care for others is a blessing.

The words of a sage

137 What seems obvious in a distilled, orderly teaching comes through multi-layered synthesis by the teacher.
137 Hasid must surrender the know-it-all to acquire true knowledge and ‘commune with God’ in the thing to be learned.
138 sit with something long enough for deep learning [and transformation] to happen.
138 We ‘have’ the b’rachah-blessing when God is palpably felt in the blessing.
138 Priestly blessing: the final element is not shalom, but putting God into it.
139 Yehudah Leib of Ger (S’fat Emet): “The Hasid is one who listens for God in every moment.”
139 To correct someone, help them connect to their soul, using gentleness, wisdom and humour – soul gives life.
139 Find the good, soften the judgement.
139 “If you must reprove someone, the carrier-wave must be one of love; and if that love is palpable, then it will be very clear that you have not come to condemn the person and thus the words may be received.”
140 Offer feelings in your speech [and prayer?]
140 Buber: “God is not addressed in the third person.” [Actually, in a lot of prayers God is addressed in third person. Perhaps that’s one of the problems!]
141 “When God is talked about, without feeling, and without a deep investment in God’s reality pervading and penetrating that very moment, then God is not”
141 “We are always in the presence of God, and to live as if we were not is like talking about someone in the third person when he or she is right there in front of you. Thus Hasidism is nothing less than the attempt to do everything in the presence of God.”
141 Buber: “If to believe in God means to be able to talk about him in the third person, then I do not believe in God. If to believe in him means to be able to talk to him, then I believe in God.” “God is the Thou that by its nature cannot become It.”
141 Live as if I believe what I claim to believe.
[When I make t’shuvah, I’ll see others and their goodness. They’ll experience a better me. There is also more goodness in our shared field. This creates a virtuous cycle in which everyone’s tshuvah and goodness are more likely to surface.]
142 As our souls are all contained in each other and the Great Soul, my prayer and tshuvah can help the t’shuvah and healing of other souls.
142 No teacher should be given personal credit – they are a conduit from the collective unconscious of teachers, and the Great Teacher. [Their ‘receiver’ is tuned in – they may be teaching consciously or unconsciously.]
143 Job 32:8 Ruach teaches us. Insight comes from soul. Learn to anchor insights, because soul never repeats itself.
143 Reb Pinchas: “What is God? The totality of souls.”
144 Shamanic journeys give rise to the unexpected from an autonomous alternative reality.
144 Henry Corbin (Sufi scholar): “Who says it isn’t a real world? Just because the criteria of this world says it isn’t real, doesn’t mean it is not real by the criteria of that world!”
145 There is a place both for teaching from a ‘pedestal’ (set apart from the student), and, being alongside students, showing them how to enter special states and experiences.
145 Can connect to another person’s inner worlds through shamanic journeying
147 We can reach Dinvine union in non-ordinary reality, but must be able to walk between worlds, and, in ordinary reality, serve God as Other.

Eavesdropping on a journey out-of-body, Pt 1

The mourning of the Shekhinah

A blessing no one else would give, Pt 2

150 Look into the future of what a blessing will (or could) bring. [NB But, remember, although all is foreseen, free will is given. Nineveh is spared at the time, because it repents, even though its survival means later Syrians oppress Jews. Can’t be damned for possible future sins.]

6. A Bear in the Forest: Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezritch

The family tree

A sojourner in the world

153 Learning and influence may not correlate with wealth or comfort.

Words and reality

[Character of the teaching / teacher shows in the students.]
[If intent is pure, have no concern over people’s opinions.]
[A simple story, told at the right time to the right person has deep transformational power.]
159 Stand for ‘atzilut moments’ in services or rituals.
[Study must be done with soul.]
160 Read a text for the presence of spiritual reality, “so that it’s not merely idea, but a gateway to realisation”.

The magic circle of the Ba’al Shem Tov and the Maggid’s t’shuvah

162 Pashute Yid / simple Jew: no complex theology or detailed halachah; open-hearted; desire for simple connection with God; avoid shul politics; approach liturgy as holy; creative; participative; not controlling; cry to God for needs; attend to others’ needs.
162 Trust in Divine Providence; uncomplicated faith
166 Olam ha-mashal / imaginal world where worlds and alternate realities meet
Dov Baer (Maggid) à Shneur Zalman (Alter Rebbe) à Menachem Mendel (Tzemach Tzedek)
166 The body can doubt: Abraham doubted God’s prophecy of a child

A bear in the forest

[Not clearly naming successor could lead to in-fighting, or respecting everyone.]
170 A judgement-oriented leader will struggle to offer pastoral support.
[Teacher can bring message down a level, or lift a student up a level.]
170 Give and receive love to calm one’s temper
172 Leadership decided by the collective, and not the leader who is being succeeded
172 Knowing who will take a role, by virtue of Divine will, is not the same as choosing them.
174 To divest oneself of leadership takes humility.
174 All the rebbes were important for building and sustaining the movement and its legacy. [I imagine Reb Z. is also saying this about Jewish Renewal.]
[We all carry different pieces of the puzzle, legacy and solution.]
175 Pride is a lifelong challenge … even for God (see Ps 93:1 God robed in splendour)

A new holy fellowship

[As well as studying Torah for its own sake, we need to experience its mysteries.]
179 Maggid usually davened alone [so we can too]
[Sometimes see a person’s path but can’t say or stop them taking it. Sweeten what you can for them.]

The Maggid’s tish and the transparency of the teacher

181 listen to a person who is in touch with the sacred and holy
182 M’zamtzem = transparent to Divine will
183 Don’t prepare the sermon – be open to what’s right at the time
184 Sinai revelation downloaded quickly – davenen moments can reconnect us to eternity
185 2 Kings 3:15 Musician plays and spirit of God comes upon him [the musician or the listener?]
185 Can become a selfless musical instrument of God.
185 Rebbes interpret single verses out of context to make a point.
185 Avot 2:15 ‘Honour of your friend should be as dear to you as your own’ à Don’t give yourself airs, so don’t buy into anyone else trying to inflate you.
186 Reb Shmelke desensitises himself to people’s praise by first over-praising himself.
[New reading: When someone honours you, offer at least equal honour in return.]
[Listen to a teaching, or read a passage as though privately and personally addressed to you.]
187 Before a teaching, a rebbe is doing kavanot, even during apparently mundane activities.
[Treat Shabbat meal all as sacred, sacrificial moment. Don’t break the spell after kiddush.]
188 (note on p358) Our name is God-inspired, therefore connected to the root of our soul.
[Can one project forward to ‘feel’ that group that will be present, and prepare accordingly? Yes, maybe, as long as we’re not just ‘thinking’ forward.]
189 Channel the Shekhinah and speak in the moment, trusting you will say what the group and its individuals need to hear.
189 Use your skills to evoke awe in God, to trigger spiritual growth.
189 A hasid can derive years of learning and benefit from one teaching [or audience] from their rebbe.
[Taking each student’s verse forces the teacher to stay open. Like saying ‘yes, and’ in improv.]
191 “while we might agree that there was nothing truly novel left to hear, it is not likely that there was nothing left to learn.”
191 A wise learner must use wide awareness as well as a critical mind. “the difference between the words and the reality, the surface and the depth. Much of this depends on how a Hasid listens, and the contemplative chewing that follows this listening. But it is not the critical moind with which the Hasid listens and contemplates. For the Hasid, that is the mochin d’katnut, the constricted mind, though perhaps it might be better to think of it as the limiting mind, the narrow awareness. For the critical mind is always focused on the isolation of details. But the Hasid cultivates an altogether different mind, which we call mochin d’gadlut, the mind of enlightenment, inclusion or expanded awareness. It is inclusive rather than exclusive, harmonising rather than separating, ever seeking pattern and relatedness. When the Hasid listens to the Rebbe, it is not with the debate-oriented mind of the yeshiva, asking ‘What is wrong with what has just been said?’ Rather , the Hasid is involved in a process that is called ‘right-making’, giving the benefit of the doubt and asking, ‘What is right with what has just been said? What would it take for my head to get into a place where I can understand this correctly?’”
192 “it is in this willingness to shift that we open ourselves up to the miraculous order”
192 The implicit contract between Rebbe and hasid: “If you will agree to listen in this way and to do the work, then I promise that I will do the same on my end, and I will also do everything in my power to help you to become independent of me.”
192 “Thus the Hasid always tries to listen with an expanded awareness, trusting that the Rebbe is doing the same, knowing that the right-making mind see possibilities where the critical mind does not. For possibility is precisely what the Rebbe is seeking: possibility for compassion in a world of harsh judgements and sever karma; possibility for reconciliation between the human and the divine, between the human being and the divine being within the human. The Hasid believes that the Rebbe is always seeking (on their behalf) to exploit some crack in the concreteness of reality, opening to the miraculous order, through which he or she might wiggle, opening onto unexpected vistas and new dimensions of consciousness and love of God. This is the secret of the Maggid’s (and most Hasidic) Torah—the attempt to shift the frame on reality toward compassion and wholeness.

7. The Thirteenth Gate: The Great Maggid and the voice of the Shekhinah

193 Hasidic Torah is holistic, not linear; intuitive and surprising, not neatly sequenced or signposted. Keep an open mind. Teaching and writing are necessarily serial.

The anatomy of Torah

194 Bone = etzem = inner being (like sod)
196 Old revelations still count, but … new layers are being revealed.
196 Renewal and fresh insight don’t mean abrogating tradition
196 New Torah can be found in our own deepest selves

Short sentences, short prayers

197 Condense and contract vast and detailed ideas to ‘funnel’ them for the student [NB ‘condense’, don’t dilute]
197 Package teaching so it can be received, anchored, unwrapped, retrieved

The glory revealed to the world

198 God contracts and condenses Creation and Revelation for us.
199 Ein Sof has no will, so cannot will Creation into being
199 Great rabbi drawn into wanting / will by the delight of his child’s play à God is drawn into wanting good things for us by our joyfulness, praise and delightfulness
200 The tzaddikim comprise all those being righteous in this moment, creating a collective energy / mass of righteousness. It is for this aggregate will to righteousness that God creates. [So we do influence God and upper realms.]
201 Egolessness = “transcending one’s own desires for the need of another”
201 Ego can manage the store, but mustn’t think itself the owner.

Ya’akov’s inheritance

202 Substance exists only in relation to nothingness, so God contracted to create nothingness.
202 Tzaddikim are emanations / aspects of God. They are how God can interact and play with Godself. The potential for their existence and actions can influence God. Their potential to seek and find God delights God before Creation, and stimulates God to have the will to create.
203 Since God withdrew to make room for emanations of Godself, God and emanations experience separation that must be bridged.
204 The nothing must be created to make space for action and something so ‘nothing’ both separates thought and action, and bridges The nothing is the most precious infinite gift to us that makes every-thing possible.
[Remember the mystery that God is never absent, but present even in the Nothing, and at the root of all our actions.]
[God is in Man. So ask, ‘where is Man?’]
205 God-parent steps back as we realise we have inherited Divinity and its attendant power and responsibility.

Egypt, matzah, and the freeing of awareness

206 We’re in ‘narrows’ when we lose knowledge of God.
206 Maggid: in Egypt, awareness-da’at was in exile-galut
206 Songs 8:7 Mighty waters of existential worry can’t wash away love à come back to God-connection
207 True freedom is to know God-Father.
208 2 Sam. 7:3 God becomes known when Israelites come out of narrow place (unawareness). Maggid turns this around: when we come out of narrow place of unawareness, we come to intimate knowledge of God.
208 Maggid addresses the group mind with their apparently disparate questions.

The works of the Tzaddikim

209 Maggid is answering the questions “What is it that we contribute?” and “How are we needed by God?” Connecting everything back to God ie. raising the holy sparks, recognising God in everything.
210 Ps 27:4 Only the Shekhinah do I seek.
210 Tikkun olam is reintegrating sparks to God – connecting everything mundane back to the holy. [It is not social action, which is a secular concept, different from ‘repair of the cosmos’.] Make tikkun, by recognising every need we pray for here corresponds to a need for the Shekhinah to come out of exile and become known here.
210 God delights when we acknowledge all comes from God, and when we ask for our needs to be met for the sake of the Shekhinah.
[We can also become givers to the wider world, passing on the goodness we receive from God.]
211 Receive while acknowledging God as Source, and Shekhinah within myself needing it. Consult Shekhinah within me [and others, and the situation] what she needs.
211 Maggid: mitzvah without kavanah separates material and spiritual.
211 Prayer must have kavanah – must consciously invite God into the process.
211 Those who study in awe and love sit at the feet of the author.
212 Connect to the teacher: kiss their book.
212 To set our attention on God brings God’s attention on us. That mutual beholding is mutually redemptive. We are redeemed from separation, and the Shekhinah is redeemed from exile [being stuck in a physical world separated from the rest.]
213 Havayah = existence = Hasidic way to refer to God YHVH. [This is what we have d’veikut-union with, and how we experience the ‘greater miracle’ of yesh-something and ayin-nothing being turned into each other.]
213 Natural events, occurring according to principles we can explain are miracles, but perceived as Malkhut. To perceive them as the miracles they actually are, we need to log on to God as Havayah.
213 With miracles, we’re inclined to notice the surface more than the depth.
213 Jewish Renewal uses Yah – connects to chochmah / wisdom / spiritual world and binah / understanding / mental world, and not distorted by emotional and physical drama. Adonai is boss, but Yah is more personal and less ‘exile-ing’, and also gender-free.
214 Adonai “is the wrong address if one is looking for mercy”

Houses bigger than synagogues

[Look for Shekhinah, indwelling Divine, in everything, so that we always look beyond attaching to the thing and attach to God in the thing.]
Adoni = my lord; Adonai = my lords
215 Hagigah 42: Foolish to lose all that (MaH) is given à to lose the Divinity / Divine image we are imbued with, by besmirching it.
216 Story: peasant (us), Statue (divine image in us), King (God).
[Bring human closer to God in order to reinstate respect for divine image.]
Zohar I 71: a wild animal attacks when it thinks human is a beast. [We attack ourselves or another person when we lose touch with the Divinity in us or the other person.] Story of ‘inner dog.’
[To neutralise what comes at you, find that aspect within yourself and turn it towards serving Yah. Then the aspect will no longer be alien, separate, threatening, lacking humanity or divinity.]
217 Hod is chesed-grace manifested in function.
217 Admonish with grace and kindness – put a compassionate frame to create channel for forgiveness [and t’shuvah]
[Da’at has been given, and cannot be taken away. It gives us knowledge of the world (potentially), self, and God.]
218 Speak to another only when connected to Yah. Otherwise one speaks from pride and arrogance.

Outer and inner

218 ‘Go out … to the King’ Transcend covetousness and I-It focus on utility – see the Divine in the other [and ask and offer oneself]

The beauty of Rachel

220 Feeling sexual attraction and arousal: realise that desire and beauty come from Yah. Then focus on Yah, the source of these, in order to discover the appropriate response.
221 Don’t ‘steal beauty’ to discharge your urges.
221 Offer back what you wish to take, and offer it to the Shekhinah within the person.
221 To have our prayers accepted, we must approach Yah with charm.

One who comes to be purified

222 Don’t assume Yah will make holy activities easy.
222 Ganesh (Yah) is the bestower and remover of obstacles.
[Four Nations lesson: Enemies are Teachers.]
223 “The truth is that the diverting thought is the help that Heaven sends.” [The obstacle is part of the journey.] [So, for example, if someone distracts our prayer, that is a gift. Don’t argue. Lift the prayer and the person to God. Draw the person into your prayer.]
223 Besht: move through, or transform obstacle. Shneur Zalman: resist the obstacle.
[Turning a distracting thought into a God-connection = t’shuvah, so more powerful than a spiritual thought.]
224 Making a cow ‘holy’ is a bigger deal than an angel saying ‘holy’.

Faith-ing

224 Faith is not something you have. It’s something you do.
224 Christianity & New Testament, faith = pistis, ‘knowing’, so it’s intellectual. Jewish word is emunah [loyalty, and something we do]; oman = artist / craft, imunim = (piano) practice, we work at it, and embed it as practice. So I am faith-ing which is active service to Yah.
225 Find the sefirah / higher impulse that lies at the root of the misdeed.
226 Go to the source / sender of the message / messenger. [A positive or negative emotion is a soldier / messenger from the sovereign. Go to the sovereign. Don’t waste time with the messenger.] [Treat each situation or person as a messenger from God.]

The wounded tzaddik and the passing of the Maggid

[Physical / medical challenge or illness don’t correspond with spiritual weakness – and may even be particular gift or task.]
[We can be a chance for God to benefit others.]
The thirteenth gate
230 13 gates – 12 for the tribes, 13^th for those who don’t know their tribe
231 No need to insist on conformity. Each person has a unique path and gate.
[The harder search or journey might produce a holier outcome.]

Part III: The Circle of the Maggid and the Rebbe King

8. The Heavens of the Angel: the lonely path of Avraham the Malakh

235 In Hindu tradition, a guru teaches a disciple, and a pandit teaches an idea.
235 Teacher can draw us into experience, or be a model.
[My drashes frame ideas for people who want to do the work. My davenen style opens people to experience.]

The mikveh

[Make body transparent to spirit à give spirit full embodiment, and body full spiritedness.]
A father’s love
238 Story: Dov Baer’s son creates desire in father to play – metaphor for God-relationship
The face of an angel
[Consider: This story could reach us only if his wife told someone. Or he might have taught this as a caution against overwhelming one’s wife.]

Friends and mentors

[Friends can tutor each other, even on the same text.]
241 Nachman: “Whatever the soul learns, teach if to the body.”
241 Shneur Zalman: “Just remember that you are a divine being having a human experience, and not the other way around.”
[Know how to walk between worlds. Keep in touch with Assiyah-physical world.]

Twelve more years

[There are real places beyond Ordinary Reality.]
[We can encounter and observe each other in Non-ordinary Reality.]

Noah and the hot water

244 Love and awe = 2 wings, can carry our words of prayer to God. Therefore, deliver your prayer with love and awe.
[Maskil = a teaching song. From sakal = to have insight. Also a ‘scholar’ follower of the Haskalah.]
244 Earth present as seed-point in Chochmah, the first created sefirah.
246 The Flood = the normally calm waters of chesed ‘boiled’ over into excessive gevurah, and Noah helped right this imbalance.
246 Chronicles ‘Yours Lord are the greatness …’ all things are acknowledged as under God’s sovereignty.
246 Koach = kaf + chet = 28. The ’28 times’ are the 14 positive activities and 14 negative correspondences in Ecclesiastes (‘There is a time for …’).
247 Chochmah-wisdom à koach mah, the power of ‘what’-ness = the potential to take conceptual form, prior to becoming substance, the ‘idea’ of the end substance.
[Discern the original concept behind the created form.]
247 Ten generations from Adam to Noah (Avot 5:2) à ten sefirot gradually tarnished, and God was patient until Noah’s time.
248 Tevah = ark-word. 3 levels of ark à profane speech, mundane speech, mitzvah speech (speaking with love and awe).
248 Gen.7:17 The tevah / ark / word was raised above the Earth.
248 Reb Z.: God says come into the ark-word. God is already present in the essence of the word, and we can penetrate and connect to its God-energy.
249 ‘Dance’ à pole dance à prom dance à Hasidic dance à heavenly dance à we can elevate the word ‘dance’.
[The Malakh is very esoteric and intellectual, holy work, but very hard to penetrate.]
249 Shneur Zalman: Tzaddik ‘bobs up and down’ when walking with Go à raises sparks ‘up’, brings mercy ‘down’ [like angels ascending and descending Jacob’s ladder – so we can aspire to do this too.]

Grounding the angel

252 “A small hole in the body causes a large hole in the soul.” Care for the body as if it were the soul. [Perhaps caring for the body is caring for the soul?]

The Maggid’s successor

253 Dynastic succession would have promoted weaker leaders, and stifled development of better ones.

The mountain

The fiftieth gate

255 Kabbalah has a language with much vocabulary and layers and subtlety.
[God created our flaws and quirks as well as our pure souls.]
257 The Torah isn’t the Truth, but points to truth.
257 Nistar = ‘hidden’ part of kabbalah. [The Tao that can be spoken is not the Tao.]
257 move from words to inner experience cannot be articulated.
258 Kadmut ha-sekhel – reaching for the ‘beginning of awareness’ [the moment before the aleph of anochi at Sinai]
258 Maskil = cause of awareness.
[We can’t follow all threads of revelation and truth simultaneously. Trust that the one currently in front of us can take us to the Source.]
259 We need common sense to make use of higher sefirot.
259 Sekhel / common sense helps ground the mystical and conceptual, and reveal those in the visible and manifest.
260 Do even the most secular activity in the service of holiness.
260 Counting the Omer = 7 aspects of 7 sefirot = 49 days. Shavuot = 50, the moment of receiving Revelation after 49-day journey from slavery in Egypt, preparing all the way. 50 is also the Jubilee year when all is returned to its source, a cosmic return to Divine origin.
[Perhaps the mundane version of kabbalistic teaching is to catch evil in its mildest first appearance i.e. nip it in the bud.]
262 We reach ever upwards towards what cannot be comprehended, above awareness, and cause of awareness. To ‘nothingness’ (ayin) and beyond even that. Ayin = nun (binah-understanding), yud (chochmah-wisdom), alef (keter-silent), above it to Atik Yamim (Ancient of Days).
262 Maskil wants us to know the sekhel it causes, and sekhel want to take us back to maskil, its source and cause – they point to each other.
264 Ein Sof = Without Limits. Yah, being infinite, cannot change.
[Beginning of desire to make à idea of making à hands à clay à]
[movement is ‘upward’ in the Tree towards Divinity, so we can bring it into manifest form. Chick-egg question: Must God come down first so we know how to go up, or must we reach up, so God can come down?]
267 A flame will merge with a larger flame, like our soul with God.
268 Avot 1:6 “There is a desire greater than that of the calf’s desire to suckle, and that is of the cow to give sustenance. Therefore, through great compassion God wishes to be a mashpiyya [mentor / teacher], to channel and condense the flow of divine energy.”
270 Kagan story: King’s messenger lives the message as a practice. The words are too complex to remember or articulate, and the scroll might get lost, damaged or misinterpreted.

Reaching too high

A debt to the world

The Tzaddik

274 “Moses talked with God, while his brother, Aaron, was the pastoral comforter of the people.”
[Is Reb Z. an apologist for the Malakh? The Malakh doesn’t seem to have alleviated the struggles or ignorance of the people, but rather seemed to have been hermit-like and unworldly. Is it spiritually enlightened to be so unconnected to people and the world, or your own wife? The Malakh was an explorer of esoteric realms, but were they ‘higher’? But none of us gets everything right. We each do our bit, as did the Malakh. Take what we can from his teaching, and be compassionate towards his limitations as a person.]

9. Beggars and Kings: Elimelekh of Lizhensk and his brother, Zushya of Anipol

The prediction and a house of piety

276 Beggar requests donation from those who sacrifice more to give à greater merit
[Simplify life; give away what you don’t need, and what others may need.]
276 “merit and blessing come through sacrifice”
276 “cleverness is put in the service of God”

The exile

278 Lived on the road deliberately to experience what Shekhinah’s exile is like [in loss, experiencing response of the stranger, offering the Divine where it will be received …]
280 Two men, shunned when poor, feted when famous rabbis, pour wine on clothes, give feast to horses, since they must be what townspeople must be honouring.

The woodcutter and the prince

Shabbat during the week

284 We can make holy time and space whenever we need to.
Give over all your needs to God, and be grateful
284 Everything is from God [i.e. humans are God’s unconscious agents]
285 Zushya, poor and ill: ‘Nothing bad has ever happened to me.’
[NB Zushya frames his own experiences as blessing. I don’t read this as any suggestion he saw other people’s misfortunes as blessings from God; that would lack compassion. His stance is a marriage of pistis / belief and emunah / loyalty i.e. perfecet faith. In counselling ot supporting someone in adversity, I would ask about both, encouraging them to continue to relate to God, even angrily, for these too would be evidence of pistis and emunah.]
286 Zushya’s five verses for making t’shuvah: ‘Oy!’ he said, ‘how could do I the big t’shuvah (repentance), I can’t do it all at once, so I broke it into five parts: T—tamim, ‘You shall be whole-hearted with YHVH, your God’ (Deut. 18:13); S—shiviti, ‘I have set YHVH before me always’ (Ps. 16:8); U—ve’ahavta, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (Lev. 19:18)’ V—b’khol, ‘In all your ways acknowledge God’ (Prov. 3:6); and H—hatznei’a, ‘To walk humbly with your God’ (Mic. 6:8). These initial letters of these five verses of Hebrew—tav, shin, vav, bet, heh—when taken together, spell the word t’shuvah!’

The flow of blessing

287 Don’t bargain with God for your own benefit.
287 ‘Holy matters’ don’t work according to logic.
[The blessing we need might flow from anyone, and not necessarily a spiritual master.]

Long live the King!

288 Rebbe doesn’t appoint himself; he becomes rebbe because people want him to be.

The renegade’s blessing

292 “leadership of this kind [being a Rebbe] is a terrible burden and involves all manner of danger, especially with regard to ego”

The horse doctor

293 Refined or blunter teachings should be chosen depending on the listener.
293 One can serve God with sleep.

The Tzaddik

294 Book: No’am Elimelekh [on sefaria.org]
294 A true tzaddik realises perfect service is never achieved, recognises importance of the work and humbly recognises that the work falls short of what is needed. And this stance is precisely what makes them a tzaddik.
295 ‘radical humility’

Practical tzaddikism

295 Elimelekh distributed all extra cash before sleeping
296 Rebbe is not intermediary with God, but pushes the hasid from below.

The view from above

298 In God’s eyes, and atzilut, everything is seen as ‘good’ and in harmony with highest principles. In lower worlds, especially assiyah, we see evil and trouble, and have to pray for this to be addressed.

The trial of God

God’s atonement

301 Innkeeper YK story: wrongs he has done, and wrongs God has done – we must forgive each other. [Nice story, but ‘what-about-ism’ played against God makes us dodge our responsibility.]
301 Reb Z.: Even if God’s wisdom is perfect, we must honour that it doesn’t appear that way to us.
301 “ part of the essence of Hasidic spirituality [is] … how an ingenious twist or shift in perspective has been introduced into situations of material and spiritual importance to create healing or deep understanding”
302 Bobover Rebbe: Reward for doing good, for benefit received and good done as a result; punished only for bad deed, since impact intended to benefit only oneself. “importance of kavanah behind simple acts” “lighten the burden of judgement around those who have done wrong, making it easier for them to do t’shuvah”.
304 “it is not enough to regret your past, you have to change your negative patterns”

10. The King’s Counsel: in the court of the Rebbe Reb Melekh

The Tzettel Katan [little note]

307 Hanhagot were specific to a person, not general advice
308 Meditation: offer self [ego] to flames for God (death meditation)
308 A sincere, felt, imaginal experience can count as a deed [programming neurons and brain patterns]
308 Sh’ma – God is Unity, Amidah Avot – God is our Protector even when the body is on fire.
309 Regular meditative practice of offering up the soul to God makes it a reality, over repetitions and time – and the body follows the soul’s lead.
309 If we were in danger, we’d prioritise God – so imagine this, to develop the habit of prioritising God.
310 Pain and pleasure transmuted into kavanah of union with Yah.
310 No enjoyment without thanking God, so make b’rachah for sex etc.
310 Our task is to unite transcendent-manifest, masculine-feminine, upper-lower, heaven-earth – unifications. We can all do this.
311 Find inner truths and God-connection not through official doorkey, or breaking lock, but by picking the lock any way you can. All can access one way or another, not just the saints and scholars.
311 Don’t constantly track for distractions or dangers outside your personal space – stay focused on ADNY, and visualise that name on anything that distracts.
312 ADNY à DYNA / dina – judgement sweetener à soften the harshness of current situation
312 “Do not linger on such thoughts out of their proper context, for that will block the flow of wisdom coming from your soul in that moment, bending the shape of your mind to be ever more accommodating to these inappropriate thoughts.”
312 “Do not be led astray by your eyes.” (Num. 15:39) Speak only what is necessary. Sift your words of untruthfulness, flattery, gossip, boasting, shaming; hide your good deeds; disengage from those who do not speak well to you.
313 Thoughts and words must be consciously managed to ensure holiness.
313 Build the habit of thankfulness, in your own everyday words.
314 Begin study with penitential prayer
[Reprogramming oneself very important to uproot old habits.]
[Sinning is ‘de-facing’ the image of God in ourselves. Repenting is once more making visible the face of God in ourselves.]
[Repeating a sin is making t’shuvah-return to something other than God.]
[Satan is God’s helper, looking for and testing our vulnerabilities with the ultimate intention of helping us overcome them.]
316 Torah to know God: reveals mysteries, represents help.
316 Bring me closer to You; evoke awe and capacity for love
316 Torah study as prayer
[May my Torah study bring life and joy beyond just myself.]
[My soul is God’s soul – whatever God does for me also benefits God.]
317 Give to me and enlighten me, so that giving to my ancestors was not a waste, and so I can pay it forward.
317 Let God be revealed through me.
317 Let my learning benefit all life [Buddhist]
317 Let no one be hurt by my study [so I must not subvert learning to wrong ends]
317 Pray with whole being.
317 Our voice can awaken kavanah [in ourselves and others]
318 In synagogue, focus on prayer, avoid conversation.
[Mind needs to craft kavanah in shul.]
318 Imagine / internalise the wrathful presence of your rebbe.
319 Confess to a trusted friend to disempower fantasies and compulsions.
319 Good impulses of two friends overcomes the yetzer ra of each.
320 Unify oneself with God before sexual act – and during climax.
321 Awaken intention for any action to awaken holiness in yourself, and encourage unification of spirit and matter.
322 Whatever your weakness, do the opposite for 40 days.
323 Memorise the prayers.

Hanhagot Adam

323 Stay grounded, beware ‘spiritual infatuation’.
324 Daybreak an opportunity to recognise compassion and grace of Shekhinah
324 Make silent reflection time
325 Besht: study Torah every day, connect to God, then answers to the day’s challenges will come from your learning
325 Reb Z.: don’t be drawn by aspect of the external surface, or feed the wounded places within you.
325 Maintain awareness of mortality [Prioritise; do what is right, what will make most positive impact, will repair.]
325 Study ethical literature.
326 Deeper insight into teachings comes only when we cleanse and prepare ourselves.
326 We get some taste of gin before the inn!
[Perhaps true study is not finding out academically what something means objectively, but what it means subjectively for me, how it transforms me, where it takes me net, and what I do as a result.]
327 Only hate someone in whom you can find no shred of goodness. [Ha! That forces us to find the goodness!]
327 Love the other as your own self and soul.
[Before a service, avoid doing anything that pulls the prayer-focus away from the centre.]
328 “Do not cause fear or anxiety to your household, nor should you allow anger and sullness to remain therein; harbour no anger toward any person.”
328 Dov Baer: Don’t be angry in body or soul. Anger arises from arrogance [assumption we can see the whole situation – but we probably would not react this way if we were open on all four channels-worlds.]
329 Pray to be able to forgive.
329 Include yourself as one of those needing to repent and repair.
329 When receiving praise, privately remember your shortcomings [to counter pride and complacency]
329 Imagine all your actions being observed [Do you stand up for what you are doing?]
329 “Can a human being hide from Me so that I will not see?” (Jer. 23:24)
329 Meet disdain or humiliation with silence – regard as atonement.
330 Confine physical experiences to what is healthy or serves God.

The King’s legacy

332 We die in greater peace [shalom] if we do t’shuvah.

11. Footnotes

340 Learn from how a person davens, their nigunim, or how they lead a tish.
340 Lubavitcher Rabbi’s Memoirs (Mindel)
358 A name is always God-inspired, and therefore connected to the root of our soul.
362 Hinduism: Bhakti yogin is a devotional follower; a Jnani yogin is an intellectual follower
368 An exoteric teachers teaches ‘what’, and esoteric teaches ‘how’